


She Was Lonely

by ShillanSeva



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/F, depictions of suicide, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2020-08-23 19:57:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20207377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShillanSeva/pseuds/ShillanSeva
Summary: This is an extended version of the prompt under the same name in my prompts posting. I'm going to add one more chapter to it, but I'm a little stuck so I wanted to gauge the reaction to it right now.





	1. Chapter 1

She only gave in because she was lonely. If anyone, literally anyone, had spoken to her that day, maybe things would have been different. Maybe it would have stopped her from going through her father’s shaving kit an pulling out the newest and sharpest razor blade she could find. Maybe it would have stopped her from filling the tub with scalding water and writing those letters—each addressed to a person who’d left. Maybe it would have reminded her that there were other people in the world than just them—than just the people who left her behind. There were people who weren’t there to break her or hurt her. There were people who loved her—who cared about her. Maybe even a total stranger could have stopped her, but no one spoke to Bella the day she planned her death.

She knew that the day was coming. She’d been thinking about it for months now. And she knew Charlie was suspicious too. A week after they left, he started locking up his gun at night. He’d never done that before. A couple days after that he cleaned out the medicine cabinet claiming that it was all expired anyways. He even trashed the antacids. Granted, anything was lethal if abused in just the right way. 

Bella was convinced he must have talked to half of the local businesses to be on the lookout for her as well. Every time she entered Newton’s, no less than three employees asked her what she was looking for or what her plans were for the weekend, all the while taking a close look at whatever she had in her shopping cart—probably looking for rope, or poison, or any other potentially deadly thing someone probably shouldn’t be buying while they are near comatose with depression.

Charlie watched her like at any moment she would pull a knife from the cutting block in the kitchen and plunge it into her stomach. He barely let her cook anymore; not even soup. He didn’t want her alone in the kitchen.

But Bella was too wrapped up in her loneliness to realize how hard Charlie was trying for her. He brought her favorite meals home constantly, and he tried to talk to her while watching whatever game was on television. He even called Renee for book recommendations because he knew how much Bella loved reading. He bought her a new one every week—she never read a single one, but he never stopped trying.

Bella would sit at her desk and stair out the window watching the autumn leaves decay into rain, snow, and mud. Watching the world pass her by as she was stuck in the past hoping for a miracle to save her.

So, she took the razor. She filled the tub. She wrote the note.

It felt like falling asleep. There was a sting in her wrist as she watched the blood swirl away from her body and tint the water red. Her eyes followed its delicate trails until they were indistinguishable from the water, and she felt her eyes lull closed.

She never expected to wake up. She never expected cool arms to pull her from the lukewarm water and clutch her against their body. She never expected her eyes to flutter open only to meet rich golden eyes muddled by tears. She could tell they were trying to say something to her. She could hear them speaking, but it felt like she was still underwater. The sound was a muffled falsetto. They tried to keep her awake, but her eyes were so tired, and she just wanted to sleep so she let them drift shut. It didn’t matter what those gold eyes wanted from her. Her body no longer felt like her own.

She could feel herself being moved. The air around her caused her skin to pimple with goose flesh as the water dried against her skin. She felt something soft brushing against her skin, but the skin felt so distant like someone was brushing against a coat she was wearing rather than her own body.

And she felt so limp. She could feel that she was being carried bridal style, though it barely registered in her mind. The woman tried to prop Bella’s head against her shoulder, but Bella’s head could only fall backward. She didn’t have the strength left to keep any muscle taut—she may as well have been a ragdoll.

She could barely even keep a thought in place for more than a millisecond. They drifted into her mind, and she could feel the tendrils of her consciousness try to grab them, but they were ghosts—drifting through time and space without any weight to hold them down.

Bella woke up in a hospital. Her memory consisted of swirls of blood in clear water and gold eyes blinking back tears. The smell of antiseptic burned her nose, and the lights hurt her eyes when she tried to open them. She tried to raise her arm to shield them, but found that they were strapped down to the bed, and she winced as the wounds on her arms felt the pressure of straps.

“What the fuck?” she muttered to herself. But it came out more like a wheeze from the dryness in her throat. She tried to open her eyes so that she could see the restraints that held her arms down, but they couldn’t handle the fluorescence.

She laid back, giving up and leaving her eyes closed. She listened to the noise around her. Footsteps sounded nearby, and she soon heard the sound of a door opening and someone entering.

“You’re awake,” a voice said following the footsteps. The voice was soft and feminine, but it resonated in the woman’s chest with a frequency that vibrated through Bella’s whole being. She wanted nothing more than to open her eyes so she could see its source, but they felt glued shut. It reminded her of the times she got pink eye as a child and had to wash the crust from her lashes so she could open them.

“How do you feel?” the voice continued.

Bella tried to speak again, but there was only air. She pulled at the straps on her arms so that she could signal that she needed water, but she was trapped.

“Oh,” the voice said, and Bella felt resulting tugging on the wrist straps and the sound of Velcro tearing filled the air. “Let me get those off for you. You’re being supervised so you won’t need them.”

Bella frowned slightly—more at herself than at the fact that she needed to be supervised. She understood why it was necessary. She probably wouldn’t trust herself alone either so she just sighed.

When her wrists were finally free, Bella rubbed them gently and winced as she pushed against the scabs that lingered under the bandages that resided there. She tried again to say that she needed water, but only wisps of air left her vocal cords so she pointed towards her throat and made a drinking motion.

She shaded her eyes from the light and squinted them open slowly. She caught sight of a blurry body moving to her side, and then she felt a glass bump against her hand. She grabbed it and sucked deeply from the straw then sighed in relief.

Bella turned to the woman who handed her the glass to thank her, but she found that her mouth could only flop open in amazement. She was gorgeous. Blonde locks that spilled from her head like a golden waterfall. Her eyes are what captivated Bella the most. Gold and shimmering, just like her hair. She was a vampire. Bella was so captivated that the color of her eyes didn’t process through her mind for several seconds.

“Vampire,” she said quickly and pushed herself back on the bed to get away from the woman. Pale skin, gold eyes, unhuman beauty, Bella had been down that road before.

“Who are you?” Bella asked. “You’re not one of them are you?”

“I’m Tanya,” the woman said. Then raised an eyebrow curiously. “One of who?”

“Them,” Bella repeated quietly. “One of the Cu-Cullens.”

She swallowed hard as she said the name. Tanya looked confused to hear her struggle with saying it, but Bella couldn’t help the dread that filled the pit of her stomach as she spoke.

“No,” Tanya said with a shake of her head. “We’re cousins, but we don’t see each other more than once per decade.”

Bella shuddered out a breath and locked her eyes closed trying to keep the waves of anxiety from drowning her. “So they don’t know I’m here,” she said sadly.

“Well,” Tanya said. “Alice sent me.”

“She saw a vision?” Bella asked. “Figures. She can see me trying to kill myself, but she can’t see the angry vampire or the werewolves or the existential despair.”

Tanya sat close on the chair that she’d pulled up to the bed and grabbed Bella’s hand. She rubbed her thumb lightly along the edge of the bandage on her wrist. She, herself, was struggling to control her emotions. She didn’t realize Bella had been put through so much. Alice hadn’t given her any details when she’d called and told Tanya to get to Forks as quickly as she could because Bella was in trouble. Tanya almost hadn’t done it; thinking that maybe they would all be better off if the human was dead. She couldn’t be more thankful that she’d gone to Forks, but one thing bothered her.

“Why did you do it?” Tanya asked, looking up and catching Bella’s eyes with her own. Bella’s eyes widened in surprise, obviously not expecting the question from the vampire. She looked down at the sheets covering her legs and started to fiddle with a stray thread.

“No offense,” Bella said quietly. “But I don’t really know you, and you’re a vampire… and you know them.”

“I understand,” Tanya said with a nod. She released Bella’s hand and settled her own back into her lap. “You don’t have any reason to trust me yet, but I want you to know that I’ll be here until you tell me to leave.”

“Why? I don’t even know you,” Bella said.

“Not yet.” Tanya nodded. “But I hope to change that. I’d like to help you, if you’d let me.”

Bella just looked at her, examining the honesty in her eyes. She couldn’t tell if she believed her or not. Her body was screaming at her to fall for the vampire’s words, but her mind knew better than to listen to whatever call she felt towards a vampire. It was likely some sort of predatory pull that Tanya had over her, not the kind of attachment she’d felt for the Cullens.

Before she could respond, a yawn overtook Bella, and she gave Tanya an apologetic glance before settling back against the bed. “Has anyone called Charlie?”

“He was here a little while ago,” Tanya said. “I think my sisters were able to convince him to go home and get some food and a change of clothes for you. He was driving the nurses nuts with his constant pacing and questions.”

“Your sisters?”

“Yeah, Kate and Irina came with me,” Tanya clarified. “You can meet them if you like, but after you rest. You need your sleep. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

Bella nodded and let her eyes fall shut. She heard a click of the lights which must have been Tanya. It didn’t take her long to fall asleep thanks to the pain killers, but her dreams were riddled with threats of danger, and she didn’t sleep for more than a couple hours.

It was the boom of her father’s voice in the hallway that woke her. She winced as she sat up and listened for Charlie’s voice. He sounded angry. He wasn’t the type to raise his voice ever. Despite the elevated volume, Bella still couldn’t make out what he was saying.

“He’s arguing with your doctor,” a voice said next to her. Bella turned to see another blonde. She assumed it was one of Tanya’s sisters. Same striking features, but with a shorter stature and wavier hair. “Tanya is with him,” the woman continued. “She is trying to calm him, but there is little comfort for a man whose daughter is in the hospital.” She smiled sadly.

“What are they arguing about?” Bella asked.

“Charlie wants to take you home,” she said. “The doctor wants to send you to an institute. He doesn’t think you can be trusted on your own for a while. They won’t be able to send you until after you go through a psych eval anyways.”

Bella just nodded. She probably should go to an institute, but that didn’t mean she wanted to. Could she get better on her own? Probably not if the last couple of months were any indication.

“I don’t really see any other options,” Bella sighed. “I’m obviously sick.”

“Do you want to go to an institution?” the woman asked, raising an eyebrow.

Bella shook her head. “No, but if I’d been able to heal on my own, I wouldn’t be here,” she said gesturing to the hospital room. “Charlie can’t afford that though. Our medical insurance will barely even cover this hospital room.”

Bella sighed and dropped her head into her hands. “God, I’m so stupid.” She shook her head viciously.

“Hey,” the woman said. “You’re not stupid. You’re hurting.”

“No offense,” Bella scoffed. “But I don’t even know your name, how would you know anything about my hurting.”

“Well, my name is Irina,” she said. “And I’ve got a Ph.D. in Psychology, so I’d say I know quite a bit.”

“Figures,” Bella said. Rolling her eyes. She couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a vampire with a Ph.D.

“We could help you Bella,” she said softly. “We have the money.”

“Why?” Bella asked raising her voice slightly. “Why would you even bother? If anything, I’m more of a liability alive than I am if you just let me die. Don’t misunderstand me. I only feel bad that I didn’t succeed. Charlie would be much better off without me around, and no one else would even notice.”

“Well you’re wrong about that kid,” a voice said from the doorway. Bella turned to see Charlie standing with his hand against the door handle and a gloomy look on his face. He rubbed a hand across his forehead like he was trying to wipe a migraine from his brain. “Maybe I should send you to an institution.”

“I don’t mean to overstep my bounds,” Irina said. “But my sisters and I will be in town for a while, house sitting for our cousins. I have a Ph.D. in psychology and Kate, the sister you haven’t met yet, was a nurse before we opened our bookshop, if you would like, we could watch over Bella while you’re not home.”

“I don’t need a baby sitter,” Bella said, crossing her arms.

“Don’t think of it like that Bella,” Irina said crossing the floor to sit next to her on the bed. “Think of it more as hanging out with a couple of friends after school.”

Bella rolled her eyes.

“That’s a very generous offer,” Charlie said. He said it slowly, mulling the idea over in his head. Bella couldn’t believe he was even considering it. He had never met these three people in his life. She wondered if he knew they were related to the Cullens. “If you don’t mind me asking, why would you go out of your way so much for Bella? I wasn’t even aware she knew you until I was called to the hospital and told that three out-of-towners had brought my daughter who was bleeding out, to the emergency room.”

“We’ve only known Bella for a short time,” Irina explained. “But seeing as our cousins were partially responsible for her current condition, I feel it is our obligation to correct that. And besides, we’ve all grown rather attached to Bella, and it would be nothing but an honor to help her.”

“Don’t I get a say in this at all?” Bella asked. She wondered where Tanya was, and if she was listening to this conversation. Bella was as confused as Charlie about why they were there. She sort of understood the obligation thing, but she felt it would be in their better interest to kill her and be done with the whole thing. Bella wasn’t dumb, she’d caught the double meaning of “her current condition.”

“Well what do you want?” Charlie asked. He’d taken a seat in the chair next to her bed as Irina had spoken, and now, he was looking intensely at her, taking in ever little nuance in her facial expression and trying to understand what was going on in her head.

“I don’t—I don’t know,” she said. “I just don’t want to be here anymore. I don’t want to be in this hospital anymore.”

“Well they are going to keep you tonight to monitor you,” Charlie said quietly. “In the morning, you have to go in for a psych evaluation before they will release you. The doctor will make a decision what she thinks is best after the eval, and then you can make your decision. You’re only seventeen so unfortunately you don’t get to make all your medical decisions, but I want what is best for you, and that includes knowing what you want.”

Bella nodded her head. “What time even is it?” Bella asked. She had lost all semblance of reality when she had entered that tub, and she hadn’t glanced at a clock since. It was just after school had gotten out then.

“It’s eight in the morning,” Irina said.

“The morning!” Bella yelled. “But it was like 4PM when I—when this all started.”

“Well,” Irina said. “You’d reached stage 4 blood loss by the time we get you to the hospital so you’d gone into shock.They had to give you a transfusion when we got here. If you got up right now, you’d probably still be pretty woozy because your body is still recovering.”

“Speaking of which,” Bella heard Tanya’s voice say. “I brought you breakfast. You need something to get your strength back.”

Bella turned to watch Tanya as she maneuvered through the door with three separate plates in hand. Another blonde, Kate presumably, was behind her carrying her backpack with what she assumed would be a change of clothes. She couldn’t help but smile as Tanya set up a tray in front of her and placed all three plates down.

“I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got a couple options.”

“Thank you,” Bella said. “You don’t have to.”

“Nonsense,” Tanya said and smiled. “Friends look out for each other.”

“We also brought you some sweatpants. Wouldn’t want to go around mooning everyone,” Kate said and tossed the backpack onto a chair in the corner of the room.

“Thanks,” Bella said. “You must be Kate.”

“The one and only,” she said with a grin and reached out her hand. Bella heard a growl come from Tanya’s direction and glanced at her in confusion as she gripped Kate’s hand and shook it. Upon returning her eyes to Kate’s she noted the confusion on her face and frowned.

“Nice to meet you,” Bella said quietly.

“Well, it’s getting kind of crowded in here so why don’t we head out,” Irina said.

“Well actually,” Charlie said. “I have to go into work to get some things settled before I can come back to be with Bella so would one of you mind staying until then? I just don’t want to leave her alone.”

Bella rolled her eyes. “I don’t need to be baby sat.”

“Of course not,” Tanya said. “But you might need something that the nurses can’t get for you, and if we leave, they have to put the restraints back on.”

Bella sighed. “Alright, fine.”

“I’ll stay,” Tanya said. “Kate, ‘rina, why don’t you head back to the house and get something to eat. It’s been a while since the last time.” She gave them a meaningful look, and they both nodded. Bella hadn’t noticed before but now she could see how dark the amber in their eyes had gotten. Tanya’s, in comparison, were almost as yellow as honey.

“We’ll see you later Bella,” Kate said with a wave. Irina just smiled at Bella as she left the room. Charlie moved over to Bella gripped her in a gentle hug before backing up and nodding. He left the room without a word—he’d never been great at expressing his emotions.

“Why are you here?” Bella asked.

“In the grand scheme of things?” Tanya asked with a chuckle. “Or why I stayed?”

“Why did you stay?” Bella corrected.

“Because I feel—attached to you Bella,” Tanya said. “It’s not about obligation like Irina said. She just needed a reason that Charlie would understand. At least it’s not about obligation for me. There is the fact that you’re a human who knows about us, but we’ll deal with that obstacle when we get to it.”

“Edward was never going to change me,” Bella admitted.

“Well he is an idiot,” Tanya said.

“Wait,” Bella whispered. “You’d change me?”

“Of course,” Tanya said and grabbed Bella’s hand. “When the alternative is death, I’d much rather you lived.”

“But I don’t—” Bella sighed. “Every reason I had to change, left me in a forest to die.”

“Then live to spite them,” Tanya said as if it was the most simple answer in the world. “Besides if Edward was so against changing you, what’s a better fuck you than finding another vampire to do it?”

Bella hadn’t thought of it that way before. But then again, she hadn’t had another vampire ready and available to change her either. The only other vampire around was Victoria, and Bella had the sneaking suspicion that Victoria wouldn’t be too keen on changing her after what the Cullens did to James.

“Why do you even care if I live or not?” Bella asked. “I really don’t get it. You don’t even know me.”

Tanya sighed and let go of Bella’s hand. She sat back in the chair slumped slightly, but still looking ridiculously pristine for someone who just spent the night sitting in a hospital.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Tanya asked. “It might not be something that you want to hear right now, but I’m not going to lie to you if you truly want to know.”

“Yeah,” Bella said without an ounce of hesitation. She had a sinking feeling she already knew what it was, but she needed to hear it come from Tanya’s mouth before she’d give the idea any credence. “I need to hear you say it Tanya.”

“You’re my mate,” she said softly. She watched Bella process. The way Bella took a deep, slow breath to steady her rapidly beating heart, and the way her eyes darted away from her and settled on staring out the window.

“How do you know?” Bella asked.

“I knew the minute I saw you in that tub,” Tanya whispered. “And I nearly lost myself when I realized that you were dying in front of me.”

“Edward told me that mates can never leave each other,” Bella said.

“I’m not leaving.”

Bella heard the conviction in Tanya’s voice and nodded. She wanted to believe her. She wanted to believe her so badly, but that was the problem. Whenever Bella had wanted something too badly, it was taken away from her. She couldn’t deal with losing another family.

“Okay,” Bella said.

“Okay?” Tanya asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I already believe you’re more my mate than Edward ever was if only because he did leave,” Bella said. “And if you do leave, then just kill me before you do.”

“I’m not leaving,” Tanya said.

“I know you believe that right now,” Bella said. “And I want to believe it too, but on the off chance that you do leave, please—please, kill me. I can’t handle losing another family.”

Tanya moved to sit on the edge of the bed and laid her hand across Bella’s, giving it a gentle squeeze. She wanted to pull Bella against her and reassure her over and over again, but she knew Bella wouldn’t believe her until she proved it.

They spent the day watching crappy game shows with Bella drifting in and out of consciousness. The doctor took her off of pain killers, but had her placed on a large dosage of anti-depressant and an antibiotic to make sure she didn’t get an infection in the wounds on her wrists. They removed the bandages later that day and Bella was able to more closely see what her handy work had done.

Two jagged scabs, stitched closed with black threads ran the width of both of her wrists. They were both red and angry as newly created cuts often are. Tanya explained that when they found her, she’d thought about closing up the wounds with her venom, but that would have been suspicious when they got to the hospital. Massive blood loss with no visible would led to a lot of questions that Tanya couldn’t have given answers to. It had taken more control than Tanya had thought she possessed to keep herself from turning Bella on the spot, especially when she’d noticed through the blood, a faded white crescent bite mark on Bella’s wrist. Bella wouldn’t have survived the change with so little blood.

Charlie came back later that afternoon and joined them in watching crappy game shows while nurses bustled in and out checking vitals and asking a number of obligatory nurse questions. Her CNA came in around three o’clock to take her for a walk around the hospital wing. Because she was only seventeen, she’d been placed in a pediatric wing, and as she walked the halls, she saw kids of all ages and varying degrees of health. She felt bad for looking at them, especially the ones hooked up to more machines than could be counted in a glance, but she couldn’t help the morbid curiosity that possessed her. 

The walk had left her tired, only because she hadn’t stood in more than twenty-four hours and her body wasn’t going to be fully recovered from the blood loss for several weeks. She humored Charlie by eating dinner and smiling, but she still couldn’t help but think it was all useless—that she’d be dead in less than a month anyways when Tanya decided to leave.

The next morning, Bella had her psych evaluation which went about as well as could be expected. She was suicidal, what more to it was there? She thought about faking happy all the way through the eval, but she wasn’t stupid. The doctor would see straight through that act. She was a terrible liar. It was basically a therapy session, but the thing about therapy is that she’s supposed to be honest, and she can’t really do that when her life revolved around the supernatural. She jokingly wondered if there were any vampire therapists she could see, before remembering she actually knew one and probably shouldn’t be wishing too hard for that.

“Why did they mean so much to you?” Dr. Jones asked. She was a small, dark-skinned woman who had lived in town since Bella was a baby. She remembered seeing her at the small diner in town throughout her childhood, always with a cup of coffee and a book in front of her.

“Growing up, I didn’t exactly have parents. I had Renee of course, but in our relationship, she was less of a mother and more of a roommate who I need permission to go on field trips from. So when I moved to Forks, and I suddenly had this elusive, rich family taking care of me, I finally felt like someone cared. I thought they did care.”

“What about your dad?”

“He wasn’t really around which wasn’t really his fault since Renee took me away,” Bella said. “I love my dad, but I think Charlie’s life would be easier without me. He is constantly worried about me now. He doesn’t think I notice, but I’ve seen how me living with him is aging him.”

“Could be that he is just aging?” Dr. Jones asked. “He is a middle-aged man after all.”

“I guess, but I don’t think so,” Bella said.

Dr. Jones hummed and jotted something down on her pad. She took a second to think over what she wanted to say next and then looked up at Bella and asked, “Can you tell me anything you’re looking forward to?”

Bella scrunched her eyes at the question, it wasn’t what she expected. She expected to be grilled about her childhood, not positive things. She thought for a while, was there anything she looked forward to? She had never been the marriage and children type so that wasn’t really a goal for her. The only goal she’d had recently was getting turned, but that all changed. Then she thought about Jacob and she remembered the motorcycles.

“I guess,” Bella said and paused. “Um, me and my friend Jacob have been working on restoring these bikes and I’m looking forward to riding them?”

“Good,” Dr. Jones whispered smiling to Bella. “And can you tell me something that’s on your bucket list?”

Bella once again gave the doctor credit for surprising her. Of course, she had a bucket list, Bella had been plotting her death in one way or another since she met the Cullens. Dying just took on another meaning when they left.

“I’m not really an outdoors person, or athletic in anyway at all so most of my bucket list things seem pretty lame. I want to get a tattoo, or maybe publish a book of my own.”

Dr. Jones smiled again. “Well Miss Swan, I think you’re okay to go home.”

“Wait, what?” Bella asked sitting up. She thought she’d be in this eval for at least an hour, but it hadn’t been more than thirty minutes.

“Those last two questions are ones I always ask. The people who can’t answer them are the most dire cases. They don’t plan for the future. They don’t have goals, because they don’t believe there is any future for them. But you think about the future. You might be in a dark spot right now, but with a little help, you’ll be okay because you have things to look forward to in life,” Dr. Jones explained. “I’m going to set you up with a psychiatrist in town so that we can get you on a daily medication, and I’ll give you some recommendations for therapy. The therapy is what’s going to help you get better. That’s the real treatment. Very few people can get better with medication alone, but the medication will help you feel more evened out until you start to get a handle on things. Does that sound good?”

“Um, yeah,” Bella nodded. “Sure.”

She met her father outside the room where the doctor explained what she’d just told Bella.

“I don’t think there’s any need for inpatient therapy, but you might want to consider outpatient if it isn’t possible to have someone around for a while. Bella hasn’t given me any reason to believe she’s thinking about attempting again any time soon so therapy and medication should suffice for now unless things change.”

Charlie thanked the doctor and shook her hand. Bella wondered where Tanya was, but didn’t have much opportunity to look before she was practically dragged out to the cruiser by her amped up father.

“I’m going to get these appointments taken care of okay?” he said. “You focus on getting your school work caught up. Take tomorrow off, but you should probably go back after that.”

Bella nodded but internally groaned when she remembered that she actually had school still. It was November, and Thanksgiving was still a few weeks off so no break yet.

“Where did Tanya go?” Bella asked.

“I don’t know,” Charlie said. “She left with her sisters after you went in with Dr. Jones.”

Charlie looked over at Bella and watched her for a second as if he was gauging something or considering whether or not he could ask a question.

“Just ask dad,” Bella said.

“What are those women to you?” he said.

“Honestly,” Bella said. “They are friends. I don’t know them all that well, but I trust them. I trust them a hell of a lot more than I trust their cousins.”

“Okay,” Charlie said. He didn’t want to admit it, but he did too. He rather liked them actually. They were friendly and outgoing, and they seemed to genuinely care about Bella whereas he always had to guess with Edward.

And Bella really did trust them more, if only because they had agreed to kill her if need be. That would prevent her from having to do the job herself, which was sort of a relief now that she realized how quickly she could get caught and stopped.

At home, she showered while trying to keep her bandages dry which was easier said than done since she needed her hands to do everything. When she finished, she settled in downstairs on the couch to watch tv while she pretended to do her homework. She really didn’t care much about it, but pretending made Charlie feel better.

In the afternoon, the doorbell rang and Charlie, who had taken the day off from the station to settle Bella back in, opened the door to Irina. She had smiled dazzlingly at him, and he’d opened the door without an ounce of hesitation. She had actually stopped by to talk to him, apparently about the idea of Bella coming to their place while Charlie wasn’t home so they wouldn’t have to do outpatient therapy. It hadn’t taken much convincing and Charlie agreed, thankful for the help.

Charlie told her at dinner, after Irina had left, that she’d be going to their place the next day to hangout while Charlie was at work. Bella didn’t like the idea of being babysat, but she realized she didn’t have much of a choice. She wasn’t going to admit that she was excited to see Tanya outside of the hospital.

That night for nearly four hours, Bella lay awake staring at her ceiling, thinking. She wasn’t sure what exactly she was thinking about. She was lost in her own mind. Everything seemed fuzzy. Every time she wanted to grab onto a thought and focus on it, another one would shove it aside, before being unceremoniously pushed off a cliff by the next unencumbered thought.

She grabbed her cell phone three times to text Tanya, but each time returned it to its spot on her nightstand. Eventually she fell asleep to the sound of rain tapping against her window.

When she woke in the morning, she felt groggy and could barely hold her eyes open. It almost felt like she’d lost another two liters of blood, but after the night she’d had, it was no wonder she felt dead. A knock on her door, forced her eyes open to see who was there. It was Charlie, who was peaking his head through the door.

“You up kid?”

“Trying,” she groaned. “Can I just not? I want to stay in bed.”

“Well Tanya is—”

“Standing right here,” her voice called from behind Charlie. “Let me handle this Mr. Swan. Oh Bella—”

Bella groaned. “Nooo. Let me sleep, please.”

“I’ll just…” Charlie said and left the room.

“Bella,” Tanya sang. She sat on the bed and pulled the covers back from Bella’s head before giggling at the wild hair that resulted. “Come Bella, you can pass out in my bed when we get back to our place.”

“Why do you have a bed?” Bella wondered aloud.

Tanya chuckled deeply. “Do you want to find out?”

Bella nearly jumped out of her skin as Tanya whispered in her ear. She tried to ignore the fire that ran down her spine at Tanya’s breath against her ear. She got out of bed as quickly as she could and ran to the bathroom to get away from Tanya before she embarrassed herself. Bella was surprised by the reaction she had to Tanya. She knew they were supposedly mates, but she didn’t think humans could feel the pull. She’d probably have to ask.

Bella brushed her teeth and hair before throwing her long locks up in a tight pony tail. She ran back to her room to grab a pair of skinny jeans and a shirt to throw on and ran back to the bathroom to avoid the wondering gaze of her not so subtle mate.

After about ten minutes, Bella was ready to go and walking back into her room to see Tanya snooping through her bookshelf.

“You’ve got a lot of books,” Tanya said and brushed her fingers along the spines of several.

“I haven’t read half of them,” Bella said quietly, remember now how hard Charlie had been trying to make her happy. “I tend to reread the same book over and over again.”

“What’s your poison?” she asked turning to look at Bella.

“The classics mostly,” Bella said. “I’ve probably read Wuthering Heights at least a dozen times.”

Tanya pulled a book off the shelf and flipped through a few pages. “Are lesbian space odysseys also a poison of choice?”

Bella blushed brightly as Tanya waved the offending book in front of her. “It was an impulse buy,” Bella rushed.

“Was it any good?” Tanya said and returned to flipping through the pages, noting the worn, dog-eared pages.

“Yeah,” Bella said. “It’s sort of my guilty pleasure. The plot is terrible, and the writing is mediocre, but it’s nice to read something silly and fun sometimes. Victorian literature is great, but Heathcliff is no lesbian space pirate.”

“Very valid point,” Tanya laughed. She slid the book back into its place on the bookshelf, but making note of the title for later. “Well should we get going? Kate and Irina have a whole day planned for you.”

“Great,” Bella sighed. She didn’t want to do anything today. She just wanted to collapse on the couch and watch bad movies and sleep. “They do remember I am human and have very limited energy, right?”

“I will make sure to remind them,” she said with a smile, and placed her hand on Bella’s back to guide her out of the room and downstairs.

The drive to their place was spent mostly in silence until Bella recognized the direction they were driving.

“Where are we going?” Bella asked as she watched out the window. She recognized the tree line outside of her and a swell of dread filled her chest as they approached the turn-off she knew so well. But when Tanya sped past the near invisible clearing the in the trees, she felt her stomach drop like she was on a rollercoaster.

“We have a cabin not too far from here where we stay when we come to visit the Cullens in Forks,” Tanya said.

Several minutes later, Tanya turned off onto another hidden driveway. It was nearly a mile and a half long, surrounded by trees which created a green canopy that filtered the dull Washington sunlight through the leaves.

They pulled up into the driveway a couple minutes later and were greeted by Kate and Irina who had heard the car coming. Tanya opened the door for Bella, and she was immediately swept up by an excited Kate and carried inside.

“Careful with her,” Tanya yelled after her sister.

“You know nothing can stop her when she’s this excited,” Irina said waiting for Tanya to come in. “Bella is basically her new plaything.”

“Bella isn’t a plaything Irina,” Tanya said seriously.

“Oh, of course she’s not,” Irina said. “But you know how Kate is. She doesn’t get to meet new people often, let alone her sister’s mate.”

“Bella isn’t convinced yet,” Tanya said. “And I don’t really blame her. It seems the Cullens did a number on her.”

“Well that goes without saying,” Irina said. “I can’t imagine the sort of abandonment issues she has now.”

Tanya just nodded as they wandered into the living room where Kate had already roped an unwilling Bella into playing some racing video game with her. Bella was losing pathetically, but she was trying her best to distract Kate in hopes that it would cause her to mess up.


	2. Chapter 2

“You know,” Tanya said as she and Irina walked toward the front door. “Something has been bothering me since yesterday afternoon. Bella said something about an angry vampire. Do you know anything about that?”

“They didn’t tell me anything. As far as I knew, the shifters on the reservation were the only other supernatural creates in the area,” Irina said.

“I’ll have to ask Bella about it,” Tanya said sighing as she opened the door.

“I can’t imagine that will go over well,” Irina said with a chuckle as she followed her sister into the living room where Kate had taken Bella. The human in question was lying dramatically across the couch trying to convince Kate to just let her sleep a few more hours. Kate was, of course, having nothing to do with that. She wanted to get the most out of their day together before Bella was stuck in the drudgery of school again.

“Bella,” Tanya called. Bella had to do a double take at the fondness that laced her voice. It made butterflies quake in her stomach. “Are you hungry?”

She nodded quickly, looking for any way to get away from the whirlwind of madness named Kate. Bella stumbled into the kitchen behind Tanya, laughing at her own missteps.

“When did you even have time to buy food?” Bella asked as she slid onto a barstool beside their kitchen island.

“We’re vampires, Bella,” Tanya said. “We are awake twenty-four-seven, we find the time.”

“What did you even buy?” Bella asked. She was thinking of how the Cullens had cooked for her. They’d made ridiculous sized portions—enough to last her a week. Esme was an amazing cook, but she always felt like an overblown balloon after eating at the Cullens’.

“Just the basics,” Tanya said as she pulled eggs, bacon, and various other items out of the fridge and cupboards. “We cook quite often at our house in Denali. There is a homeless shelter in Anchorage that we often supply food to. They’ve come to rely on our donations especially in the winter when being homeless is so much more dangerous.”

“Oh,” Bella said, unsure of how to respond. “That’s very kind of you.” She couldn’t remember ever hearing of a time when the Cullens used their wealth for anything other than personal gain. Carlisle saved human lives, but kept his earnings as far she knew. Bella didn’t know exactly how much money they had, but they spent more money on her in six months than she’d ever made in her life.

“I grew up very poor,” Tanya said. She had a look in her eye—like she was trying to look through the stove. “As a human, I grew up in a brothel. My mother sold herself in exchange for a room. She hated the work. I can remember her face when she would return in the morning—the self-loathing. I’ll never forget it. I never met my father. I fell into the same path as my mother. When I was turned, it saved me. I was no longer a slave to my lack of wealth. That’s why I make sure to give as much as I have been given by this life. It’s irresponsible to hoard wealth.”

“I guess I hadn’t thought of it much,” Bella said softly. “I’ve never been rich, but I never went without. I guess I would probably do the same though. It wouldn’t feel right to me to keep all that money when there are people starving and homeless.”

“I’ve already got a mansion, what more do I need?” Tanya said smiling.

“Undying love and affection?” Bella asked without thinking.

Tanya flashed to her side and leaned in close. “Are you offering?”

Bella flushed straight to her toes at the implication and coughed to keep herself from squeaking. “So, um, can I help with anything?”

“Sure,” Tanya laughed. “Go ahead and grab a few eggs and crack them. I don’t know how you like your eggs…”

“Over-easy with toast,” Bella said, smiling. “Dippy eggs, my mom would call them.”

“Noted,” Tanya said and returned Bella’s smile. They cooked in silence for several minutes while Tanya contemplated how to ask about Bella’s angry vampire. She knew the Cullens’ had a run-in with a nomadic coven a few months ago, but she hadn’t heard what came of it. One of them had come through their territory and explained some of the situation before he had moved on.

Bella was dealing with her own emotional turmoil. She had been here a total of thirty minutes and already felt more at home than she ever had. Tanya didn’t treat her like the helpless human. Esme had never even let her touch the stove let alone cook anything. They didn’t even let her help with the dishes because they could do it at a vampire speed. It never made sense to Bella. They are vampires. They live forever. They couldn’t take the extra three minutes to wash a few dishes at human speed? Regardless, Bella was feeling exactly the opposite of how she wanted to feel about the Denalis. She didn’t want to get attached. She didn’t want to feel safe or comfortable or loved. She didn’t want to feel anything but apathy about them because they would only be leaving in a few months anyways and she’d hopefully be dead.

“Bella,” Tanya said softly causing the human to jump slightly. Tanya giggled and continued. “Can I ask you about something that you said yesterday?”

“Oh,” Bella said. “Sure.”

“When you asked why I was at the hospital, you mentioned something about an angry vampire?”

“I assumed you knew about that,” Bella said quietly. Her posture grew inward as she closed in on herself. “I guessed that A-Alice had told you about that, but I guess they never came back so I guess they didn’t really care.”

Tanya waited for Bella to continue. She was lifting the sides of her eggs with a rubber spatula to check the undersides before she flipped them and then sighed.

“Did they tell you about the baseball game last year?” Bella asked.

“Some,” Tanya said. “They told us they had a run in with a nomadic coven that had taken an interest in you. There was a hunter that was particularly interested.” Her eyes grew dark as she mentioned James.

“That’s the gist of it,” Bella said. “They failed to consider one thing. The hunter, James, had a mate.”

“They left the mate alive,” Tanya said. Her eyes no longer held any of the molten gold that had been there moments ago. Her voice was more of a snarl, but quiet, to avoid scaring Bella.

The human nodded. “Victoria. She’s been around. Jacob said she’s been in my house.”

Tanya stood rigid. Bella didn’t notice at first. She was too busy trying to find some plates in the cupboards beside the stove. After grabbing them and turning back to the stove, she noticed Tanya’s posture.

“Tanya?” Bella asked. She didn’t answer. She took a step forward to place a hand on Tanya’s arm, but hesitated.

“Give her a second Bella,” Irina said as she stepped into the kitchen.

Bella turned to look at Irina. The youngest sister was leaning against the door frame. She gestured at Bella to grab her food and follow her out into the living room which Bella did quickly all the while watching as war waged behind Tanya’s eyes.

“She’ll be fine in a minute or two,” Irina said. Bella glanced back toward the kitchen. Tanya hadn’t moved at all. A frown marred Bella’s features, afraid that she had done something to upset the other woman

“I’m sorry,” Bella said. “I don’t know what I said, but I didn’t mean to offend her.”

Irina let out a small laugh at Bella’s naivete. “I promise you didn’t offend her. If anything, you’ve just ensured that she is never going to leave your side.”

Bella turned to Irina, food still in hand, and raised an eyebrow.

“You’re her mate, remember?” Irina said smirking in return.

“Oh, right,” Bella said. “That. I don’t know Irina. I thought I had a mate before too and see how that ended up?”

Bella heard light footsteps before cool arms wrapped protectively around her waist and a chin landed lightly on her shoulder. “He wasn’t your mate,” Tanya said and emphasized her words with a gentle squeeze.

Bella felt a shiver go down her spine at the cool touch and the feel of Tanya’s breath against her ear. Her eyes wanted to flutter shut—she’d never felt so comfortable in an embrace.

“Watch it Bella,” a voice called from another room. “Too much of that and Tanya might get a little frisky.”

A blush washed across Bella’s face and she coughed slightly as she pulled away from Tanya who growled lightly under her breath. Bella could hear a tinkling of laughter from the hallway and knew that Kate had no doubt heard her sister’s frustration. Irina was smirking as well, but knew better than to say anything with no gift to counteract the coven-leader’s wrath.

Tanya turned Bella to face her, smirking at the blush on her face. She sobered up quickly though and brought Bella over to the couch so she could set her food on the coffee table and settle in to eat.

As she finished her breakfast, which she mostly pushed around the plate, Tanya thought about what Bella had become a part of. The vampire, Victoria, was probably hunting her—biding her time, waiting for the opportunity to strike. A mate for a mate—or so Victoria thought. But Bella wasn’t Edward’s mate which would likely fuel Victoria’s rage should she find out James died for nothing.

Bella was quiet as she ate. She knew Tanya was angry, but she didn’t feel like she was worth that anger. It would likely just get one of them killed. Better it was Bella than any of them.

“Bella,” Tanya said. She reached for Bella’s face and lightly set her fingers under the human’s chin, turning it toward her and holding it eye level to keep Bella from looking down. “You have done nothing wrong. I’m sorry I froze like that. I just don’t like the idea of you in danger. I’m angry that they left you like that.”

“It’s okay,” Bella whispered. She managed to pull her chin free of Tanya’s cool fingers and immediately dropped her gaze to the plate in front of her. She’d managed to eat about half an egg and a strip of bacon. She pushed the rest around the plate as she thought.

“You don’t—you don’t need to be angry for me,” Bella said quietly. “I’m not worth it. And Victoria is right to want me dead. If the Quileute pack had stopped chasing her off, I might be, and gladly.”

A growl sounded beside her and her eyes widened before she whipped her head up to see Tanya’s eyes pitch black. Tanya didn’t get how she could convince Bella that she wanted her alive. That it was good to be alive. She knew it had only technically been two days and it would take real treatment before Bella could get better, but the image of Bella dead awoke a part of her she seldom felt. She took a deep breath. Maybe there was really only one way for Tanya to get through to Bella how much she meant to the vampire—even after only two days. She knew it was too soon, but if she didn’t do something, she wouldn’t be able to control anything else either.

Bella’s gaze was absorbed by the blackness of Tanya’s. She felt like she was sinking into a pit of tar, helpless. She didn’t even realize she was leaning closer to Tanya. She unconsciously flickered her eyes at Tanya’s lips which was enough of a sign for the vampire to surge forward.

A gasp echoed from Bella’s throat at the contact. A voice in the back of her head said it was too fast, too soon, Tanya will leave, but no part of Bella was listening. Her brain had turned to static and she could only feel the cool lips that held her own in a delicate dance. Her hands threaded into Tanya’s hair holding her there. There was no urgency, no desperation. It was just a kiss, but it was more than Bella had ever felt in her life. When Bella finally felt her lungs burn for air, she released the vampire’s blonde locks and opened her eyes slowly as she pulled back. Tanya’s eyes had returned to their honey gold, though her pupils were dilated with what Bella could only interpret as want.

“Wow,” Bella whispered softly. A grin broke out across Tanya’s face.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “I needed you to stop talking.”

“Um, that,” Bella said, running her hand through her hair, trying to collect herself. “That—you don’t need to apologize for that.”

“I want you alive, Bella,” Tanya said softly. “Please understand that. I know I’m asking a lot when I ask you to trust me. And maybe it’s making me seem desperate to beg like this. But please Bella.”

Bella glanced back at Tanya’s lips and the look of want in her eyes nearly made Tanya close the small space between them to reconnect their lips. Bella could see the returned want in Tanya’s eyes and instead turned away from Tanya.

Kate, deciding she’d had enough of watching the two beat around the bush, entered the living room carrying a dozen different items. None of which made any sense to Bella—a saw, a stack of Monopoly money, two pool noodles, a book about the history of leg warmers, and a spoon which seemed just two sized too big to be a normal spoon. Bella raised her eyebrow at the blonde as she dropped the pile of stuff in front of the human went back to her room to come out with another armful of equally random junk.

“Um, Kate?”

“Hm?” she hummed going back for another armful.

“Whatcha doing?” Tanya asked gazing after her sister curiously. She scooted closer to Bella and grabbed her hand, wanting to feel close to the human.

“Well since you two decided to spend this day alternating between lovingly-gross and broody, I’m going to pack up our junk to donate to the consignment store in town.” She unceremoniously dropped a box onto the floor and dozen shoes jumped out, none of them matching.

“What makes you think people in town want our junk?” Tanya asked. She got up and started looking through the pile. She picked up a particularly torn up shoe and crinkled her nose at. “Or your junk, more specifically.”

“If they don’t want it, they’ll throw it,” Kate said dropping an impressive stack of folded sweaters onto the floor.

“You’re just making more work for the workers,” Bella said quietly. She had to buy a lot of her clothes from thrift stores over the years. Between her mother’s flighty nature and her own lack of money, she often didn’t have much of a choice when she didn’t have more than a couple bucks to spend on a pair of frayed, washed-out jeans. “They have to sort through everything, clean it, price it, and stock it on the floor and that’s only after they’ve decided whether the stuff is worth the effort. Most of this shit, isn’t.”

There was a slight chuckle from Tanya and a huff from Kate in response.

“Look,” Bella said. “I’ll help you okay? I’ve done a lot of this before. I worked part time at a Goodwill back home a few years ago.”

“Really?” Kate asked.

“Yeah, I’ll help. It’s better than homework.”

Kate smiled and continued her circuit of grabbing a copious amount of junk from somewhere else in the house and then dropping it into an eclectic pile on the living room floor. Bella instructed Tanya to grab garbage bags and start sorting anything with holes, stains, or broken parts into a trash pile. Bella herself dove into the box of shoes Kate had dropped to the floor and took to finding pairs while tossing the unmatched at Tanya who would snatch it out of the air without even looking in Bella’s direction. 

After a half an hour of sorting, Irina joined the group after making a quip about Hoarder’s Anonymous at Kate’s expense. Bella found herself relaxing in the company of the three women. She even found herself smiling and laughing at their antics. Unlike the Cullen children, the Denali sisters acted more like siblings. Sure, there were moments when Jasper and Emmett would mess around like brothers—knocking each other into furniture and tossing out insults, but the only time Bella had ever seen them all act like siblings was during the baseball game. Kate, Tanya, and Irina spent the time sorting making jokes at each other’s expense and trying to catch each other off guard by throwing things around the room. Bella even got caught up in the jokes after a while—Kate teasing Bella about tripping over one of the pool noodles that she had (not subtly) slid behind Bella when she wasn’t paying attention. Tanya had growled at her, but caught Bella seconds later when the human turned around and yelped as her foot slipped on the styrofoam. Bella glared at Kate who just smiled in return and waved in response.

But Bella was settling in well. She knew she shouldn’t feel this comfortable so quickly. Obviously. But she also couldn’t make herself care too much. Two days ago, she’d tried to kill herself and now she was laughing and smiling while the cuts on her wrists knit themselves shut under layers of gauze and bandage.

It wasn’t until nearly three hours later after two broken windows thanks to a mini dodgeball (shoe) tournament and sixteen garbage bags full to bring to the consignment store that they finally finished.

“Have you guys ever heard of a yard sale?” Bella asked examining the pyramid of bags that had quickly surpassed her height.

“We live in the middle of nowhere, Alaska,” Kate said. “Chipmunks and elk don’t wear Gucci.”

“Well you need to clean out your attic more often,” Irina said. Kate held up her hand to her chest and dropped her jaw in mock offense.

“_MY_ attic?” Kate said. “Well I never…” She hmphed and lifted up six of the bags to take out to the garage on the way.

“We haven’t lived in this house since the eighties,” Tanya explained. “We’ve been meaning to clean out the attic for a while, but Kate always claimed that she still used everything.”

“God,” Bella said. “She’s like a kid who won’t give up her toys.”

“Hey,” Kate yelled through the open door to the garage. “I _can_ hear you.”

“You’re supposed to,” Bella yelled back.

“You don’t have to yell, Grandma,” Kate called back. “I can hear you just fine.”

Bella was interrupted from her retort by a growl erupting from her stomach.

“Woah there Cujo,” Kate said as she entered the room.

“Bark,” Bella deadpanned. “What time is it anyway?”

“Almost one,” Tanya said as she got up to head towards the kitchen. “What should I make you?”

“Nothing,” Bella said following her.

“Bella,” Tanya started.

“No Tanya,” Bella said. “I mean, I’ll make something myself. You’re not a servant for me, and I’m not helpless. Why don’t you help Kate clean up the attic atom-bomb in the living room?”

She sighed her resignation and nodded before returning to the living room where Irina was already replacing the two windows that she and Kate had broken. “You’re really lucky, I keep replacements around,” Tanya said with a laugh.

“We’ve lived with Kate for almost three thousand years,” Irina said smiling. “At least one of us learned.”

“Hey, if I recall correctly—and I do, one of those stiletto shaped holes was caused by you,” Kate said and pointed at Irina who stuck her tongue out at her older sister.

“Children, please,” Tanya laughed as she grabbed a box marked garbage and hefted it up onto her shoulder before grabbing a couple bags to drag out to Kate’s Suburban, or “the suburbitank” as Kate affectionately called it.

Bella meanwhile was fumbling her way through the kitchen trying to figure out where everything was. That morning, Tanya had grabbed everything so it was like a giant Where’s Waldo just to find a damn cutting board. She was just going to make herself something light so when she’d found the head of romaine and an abundance of vegetables her plan was only to cut a bunch up and chow down like a rabbit.

She wasn’t paying all that much attention to what she was doing as she listened to the way Tanya and her sister’s bantered back and forth. She smiled when she heard Irina call Kate “sparky,” having learned earlier that day about Kate’s electrifying gift.

She was watching Tanya carry several more bags out to the garage when the knife she was holding slipped from her hand and clattered against the cutting board below. It only took moments before the smell of blood filled the air and Tanya was beside Bella wrapping the small cut in a towel to apply pressure.

Bella’s eyes were wide with fear and Tanya could smell the adrenaline that shot through Bella’s veins like she’d stuck a super-sized EpiPen straight into her heart. Her face had gone snow white, Tanya later mused that she looked paler than any vampire she’d ever seen. Her heart beat was erratic and uneven and she breathed like at any moment she’d start hyperventilating.

Tanya turned Bella to face her just in time to notice Bella’s eyes roll back and her body go slack. Tanya caught her in a panic and blurred to the couch to lay her down gently.

“Is she okay?” Irina asked, hovering behind Tanya.

“It’s just a cut,” Tanya said, anxiety evident in her eyes. “I don’t know why she fainted.”

“That is potent stuff,” Kate said referring to the scent in the air as she returned from the garage. “Is short-stack okay?”

“You’re like an inch taller than her,” Irina said standing and placing a hand on her hip. “She should be fine. She didn’t hit her head or anything. I’m guessing she just isn’t a fan of blood.”

“Ironic,” Kate said. Irina slapped the back of her head.

Tanya looked about to throw up, not that she really could. She had maneuvered Bella so that her had was resting on Tanya’s lap, and Tanya was gently combing her fingers through long, brown tresses. Bella stirred slightly under the ministrations, but didn’t wake up. “What do I do?” Tanya whispered.

“She’s fine, Tan,” Irina said giving her sister a sad look. She couldn’t imagine what it was like to have a human as a mate. They were so breakable, and all three of them had been vampires for so long they didn’t always remember just how breakable humans could be. “Plenty of humans faint when they see blood.”

Tanya nodded slowly, confused. If Bella was afraid of blood then how desperate must she have been…

“I’ll go grab the first aid kit,” Irina said quietly. Tanya didn’t respond, but Irina grabbed Kate by the hand and pulled her towards the bathroom anyway.

“Don’t say anything stupid,” Irina said as she pulled the kit from underneath the sink. “Tanya will probably tear your head off.”

“Hey,” Kate said indignantly as she leaned against the wall. But then remembered the time she’d nearly gotten them killed by a pack of shifters in South Africa because she’d made a poorly timed joke about flees. “Okay fair.”

“You really think it was just blood that made her faint,” Kate asked curiously.

“You were a nurse Kate,” Irina said, holding up the kit. “I know you’ve seen humans pass out from just a needle prick.”

They left the bathroom and returned to the living room just in time to catch Bella stirring from her sleep. Her eyes fluttered for a second before she shot straight up nearly concussing herself against Tanya’s own head. She got up from the couch nearly as quickly and ran to the other side of the room.

“I’m sorry,” she said desperately. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please don’t leave. Please…”

“Bella?” Irina asked while concern marred her brow. The girl was crying and she had collapsed against the wall and pulled her knees up to her chin to hide her face against. She was shaking like she’d just been out in a blizzard.

Irina approached the girl careful, mindful that an overprotective and keyed up Tanya was only feet behind her. She held up her hand to stop Tanya from approaching, knowing that of all of them, she had the experience to help the most with these sort of episodes.

She crouched to Bella’s level and sat in front of her. She reached out and gently placed her hand on Bella’s shoulder only to get her to raise her head then removed her hand. “Bella, why would we leave?”

“They did,” Bella whispered. “Please don’t leave. I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry Bella?” Irina asked trying to keep Bella’s eye contact, but she kept looking down.

“I cut myself.” She shuddered as she said it. “I didn’t mean to, I promise. It was an accident.”

“Bella,” Tanya asked behind Irina. She’d shaken most of her stupor off and now was only concerned with calming the fears of her mate. She moved to Irina’s side and reached out to grab Bella’s hand, but hesitated. “Is that what you’re worried about? We know it wasn’t on purpose sweetheart. Humans have little accidents like this all the time. We just want to make sure you’re okay. Why would we leave?”

“They did,” Bella said again. There was a far of look in her eye, and her heartbeat somehow managed to get more erratic as she talked about the Cullens. “It was just a papercut then.”

“A papercut?” Irina asked gently trying to push more information from Bella.

“On my birthday last year.” She nodded. “Jasper attacked me and they left.”

Dots connected in Tanya’s mind at the mention of Jasper. He had very little experience as a vegetarian. That, combined with his empathetic ability to feel _everyone_ _else’s _bloodlust, it was no wonder he’d attacked. Tanya was just surprised it was only a papercut that broke him.

“Edward accidentally threw me into a glass table,” Bella whispered. Her voice was far off. She pulled the sleeve of the hoodie she was wearing up past her elbow and showed them the jagged scar that stretched along the back of her forearm. “They were gone a day later.”

Unable to hold herself back anymore, Tanya scooped up the huddled human and pulled her into her lap, gripping her tightly. “Bella,” she said with a sigh. “Baby, we are thousands of years old. A little human blood isn’t going to bother us okay? You’ve done nothing wrong.”

Bella gave a small nod, her eyes searching for something in the distance. Tanya placed a kiss on her cheek and gave her a placating squeeze. Kate grabbed the first aid kit and handed it off to Irina who watched Tanya closely to make sure the other vampire was okay with her approaching the fragile human. When she saw no aggression coming from her sister, she pulled out some gauze and a bandage and grabbed Bella’s still bleeding hand. She gently wiped it down with an alcohol wipe which caused Bella to hiss at the stinging sensation, then she wrapped it in gauze and tape. It wasn’t a large cut. Only an inch or two across her palm, but it was deep. Irina had a feeling that if it didn’t stop bleeding soon, Kate was going to have to stitch it up.

“I’m sorry for fainting,” Bella sniffled. She was hiding her head against Tanya’s shoulder, loving the proximity to her vampire more than she wanted to admit.

“Oh honey,” Tanya laughed quietly. “If fainting were all it took to scare me away, we wouldn’t have even shown up at the hospital.”

Tanya could feel Bella smile slightly against her shoulder, but didn’t say anything about it.

“Well,” Kate said loudly distracting the other three. “I dub myself knife wielder in this household. Bella, love ya, but plastic knives only for you.”

Bella scowled. “What am I going to eat with a plastic knife? Play Doh?”

Kate nose wrinkled at the thought. “Soup? I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of someone cutting themselves with a spoon.”

Bella rolled her eyes and tried to stand from Tanya’s embrace, but was held down by the content blonde who shook her head and gripped her tighter. “Tanya,” Bella said. “I do need to eat. Especially now. Do you want me to faint again? I just lost a ton of blood a few days ago, I don’t think I was supposed to lose anymore for a while.”

“Fine,” Tanya growled, but instead of releasing Bella, Tanya stood with Bella still in her arms and carried her to the kitchen. She sat down at a barstool with Bella still in her lap, but rearranged them so that Bella could eat from the counter.

“It’s going to be a while before she let’s you go,” Kate chuckled. “Human, injured mate, and all that jazz.”

Bella tried to scowl at Kate. She found she was doing that a lot. But she also couldn’t be too upset because being held by Tanya felt really nice. Like really nice. Nicer than she would ever admit at that time.

Kate managed to finish Bella’s salad without any further injury and handed it off to Bella who ate in silence while a contented Tanya purred softly behind her. Kate and Irina both had to hide smirks from their older sister knowing that she’d have their heads if they even so much breathed funny at Bella.

Bella wasn’t quite sure what she was supposed to do now either. She was comfortable and she could practically feel the contentedness coming off Tanya in pulsing waves, but she was finished with her food and knew that she couldn’t just sit there the whole day.

“Tanya,” Bella whispered. A louder purr and tightened grip were the only responses she got. “Tanya, we should go out to the living room—”

A jolt and Bella was there. Tanya settled them onto the couch and pulled Bella against her chest between her legs causing the human to blush darkly. The vampire’s purring resumed and Bella resigned to the fact that she probably wouldn’t be getting any homework done now. Irina was seated on a loveseat adjacent to the couch where Bella had ended up and was bearing witness to Bella’s strife.

She could see the conflict in Bella’s eyes, but was also amused by the situation as a whole. “Yeah you’re probably not going to be moving for a while. Want me to put on a movie?”

“Sure,” Bella said. “Could you grab my cell for me too please?”

Irina smiled and nodded. “Any preferences for movies?”

“Nothing sad,” Bella said quietly and Irina nodded before selecting a disk and popping it in. She then went to the kitchen to grab Bella her phone before plopping back down onto the loveseat which caused Bella to laugh slightly.

Once the movie started, Bella settled herself back against Tanya contented by the quiet rumblings coming from the older woman’s chest. Bella smiled to herself thinking about how she’d never heard a vampire purr before, but it was kind of adorable. And really comforting. In fact, it was so comforting that not fifteen minutes into the movie, Bella was fast asleep against Tanya who couldn’t have removed the smile from her face had she tried.

Tanya could have melted from the warmth coming off of Bella. She felt so good laying on top of her, there was absolutely no way she would be letting go of the human until absolutely necessary.

About an hour into the movie that Irina had chosen—some medieval Tolkienesque fantasy about saving the world from annihilation—Bella’s phone went off. She didn’t want to disturb her sleeping mate so she gentle unwrapped Bella’s hand from around it and flipped it open to view the caller ID. It was Charlie.

“Hello Charlie,” Tanya answered.

“Tanya?” he asked, the surprise clear in his voice.

“Yeah, Bella fell asleep a little while ago, but I figured you wouldn’t appreciate your call going unanswered,” Tanya explained.

Charlie grunted in response. “I was just calling to let Bella know that I picked up her temporary medication and that I set up an appointment with a psychiatrist tomorrow and arranged a meeting with the school therapist. She’ll have to miss out on gym class a little tomorrow but I have a feeling she won’t be too disappointed by that.”

“Not in the slightest,” Tanya said with a quiet laugh. She didn’t want to jostle Bella too much.

Charlie was silent for a moment, contemplative if Tanya had to guess. “How has she been today?”

“She has been—okay.” Tanya said, wondering how honest she should be with her father. It probably wouldn’t bode well for her relationship with her mate’s father if she left something important out, but she also didn’t know what Bella wanted Charlie to know. “There was a small incident. I’ll let her explain more detail to you, but she’s okay.”

“What kind of incident?” Charlie asked.

“She had an accident with a knife in the kitchen,” Tanya explained gripping her mate tighter. The feint smell of blood still lingered in the air. “It caused a panic attack, but Irina and I were able to calm her down. It’s just a small cut, one that probably won’t need stitches, but we’re giving it a little time to see how the bleeding stops.”

“She didn’t—” Charlie hesitated, not wanting to admit what he was thinking, but needing an answer regardless. “She didn’t do it on purpose, did she?”

“No,” Tanya said quietly in understanding. “No, it was an accident while she was making herself something to eat.”

Charlie mumbled a quiet okay. “Thank you for looking out for her,” he said. He seemed tired to Tanya, though understandably. “I’m not sure what I woulda done if you three hadn’t come along.”

“It’s our pleasure Charlie,” Tanya said honestly. “You couldn’t have gotten rid of us if you tried. Bella is part of our family.”

“Don’t hurt her,” Charlie said gruffly before he mumbled out a quick goodbye to which Tanya politely reciprocated before hanging up. She liked Charlie. Tanya could tell he was a good man and a good father, if slightly clueless sometimes. But he tried and that’s more than she could say about her own father—from what she remembered anyway.

Bella woke not long after Tanya hung up the phone with Charlie. She came to fisting Tanya’s shirt and her head nuzzled underneath Tanya’s chin.

“How long was I asleep?” Bella mumbled as she sat up.

“About an hour,” Tanya said. “I just got off the phone with your dad. He was calling to let you know he set up your appointments.”

“Oh,” Bella nodded. She knew she would have to face the aftermath of her decision soon enough, but she still wasn’t looking forward to having to talk to someone. Particularly when she couldn’t actually tell them the truth about anything. How was she supposed to explain that she’d been abandoned by a family of vampires only to lose her best friend because he turned into a giant wolf, and now, she’s supposedly mated to another vampire? “Great.” She grimaced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out this is gonna be a three-shot. Sorry I've been awol; school, work, and seasonal depression are GREAT. And I've gotten some negative feedback lately on some writing so the will write has been minuscule at best.


End file.
